Unless you're in Iraq, or under a rock as the case may be, you've doubtless heard the news that the Phillies have locked up Ryan Howard through his remaining arbitration years. The three-year contract, which is worth $54 million, even includes added performance bonuses for things like World Series MVP, and Gold Glove award, honors for which the Phillies would gladly pay. This is a great day for Howard, the Phillies' organization and, most importantly, the Phillies' swollen legions of fans. Anyone who disagrees with me about this is flat-out wrong. Let me count the ways:
The Phillies have locked up their core for the next few years. This is very important, and was not at all a certain proposition. As the Phillies handed the reins to Ruben Amaro, he faced a fairly tough set of problems. While the Phillies have just won the club's first championship in a very, very long time, the team won the championship was built with a lot of home-grown talent; the Phillies benefitted from MVP-caliber seasons from Howard and very good seasons from Hamels without having to pay free-agency money for them. Sooner or later, push was coming to shove. Howard wanted to get paid, but he struck out a ton, was really, really streaky, and a bit on the beefy side as well. What, you wondered, would happen if his knees started to go, a couple of years into a megacontract? The Phillies, who probably wouldn't have meandered down this hypothetical path in the first place, would have to eat a bunch of money, and would probably be dissuaded from paying a talent again for the forseeable future. Same goes for Hamels. Was his back really that strong? Did he have it in him? Or was he as fragile as he looked? Would the Phillies even make an effort to sign them? Would they just be traded away once the bill came?
Phillies fans have reason to feel this way. In their recent history, the Phillies have had a bumper crop of very successful, homegrown players, and have done a good job of holding on to their bluest chips. Under Ed Wade this was a problem. Schilling cut his teeth in Philly, going from an erratic talent to a top-tier pitcher who was, as the saying goes, "a horse on the mound every five days, and a horse's ass the other four." Schilling was not coddled, was surrounded by a thoroughly incompetent ballclub, and jumped ship, demanding to be traded so loudly that Eddie Wade took Travis Lee and his unfilled Lexapro prescription, 19 game loser Omar Daal, Amaury Telemaco's wasted roster spot and some other pitcher whose name I can't even remember, just to be rid of him. Isn't it great to remember Travis Lee with bitter nostalgia rather than simmering rage? I vote yes. God he was awful. I remember this one time... oh, to Hell with it. You don't even want to remember. Just a bit later, there was the strikingly similar Rolen fiasco, when Scott was surrounded with Bowa, Dallas Greene, and WIP, all raising a brouhaha, saying "take our money or else!" and he couldn't get to St. Louis fast enough. He took his glove and bat, too. This was not, in retrospect, an intelligent and constructive way to handle talent.
But now, things have changed. Things have really changed, haven't they? The Phillies, in my estimation, have five players that are pretty much indispensable. Five keystones. Utley, Howard, Hamels, Lidge and Rollins are the Phillies' backbone right now. They are all, to a man, signed and happy. One could say: "Hey, they are coming off of a championship, and they are being paid handsomely. They ought to be happy." This is true. But do me a favor and look around baseball, and tell me how many teams won World Series in the crazy free agency period, and kept their core together, without much ado, without drama. Boston didn't, either last year or in 2004. The Marlins couldn't or wouldn't pay guys in 2003. In 2005, the White Sox won with a team that was built for that year. In 2006, the Cardinals won with their worst team in several years, dealing with Rolen controversy, a ton of injury craziness and a Tigers team that laid an egg, possibly in repayment for the Cardinals' similarly bad performance in 2004. Anaheim has gone through a bunch of roster changes after winning in 2002, and the Diamondbacks seemed to shed their scales after winning in 2001, and were playing a roster of young guys in 2002. The Yankees are never controversy-free, and buy everything anyway. I think you've got to go back to the mid-90s Braves and the (aaargh) Blue Jays to find teams who grew a core of great players, locked up the good ones well, and then proceeded to go about their business as usual. This is really a remarkable achievement by the Phillies, a wonderful dessert course after the salad days of October, and they ought to be recognized for it. The team won, the fans came, the owners paid the bill to keep it going. This doesn't happen much. Enjoy it.
Let's take a closer look at what this means. Coupled with the Hamels deal last month, Amaro has locked up the last two Phillies superduperstars. These deals come after Rollins was signed to a five year deal in 2005, at the tail end of Wade's tenure, which includes a club option for 2011, Lidge was signed through 2011, and Utley, correctly identified as the most-solid long-term bet, was signed through 2013 before the 2007 season. So, of the five most-important Phillies, four are locked up for three more years, and Utley, the crown-jewelled fulcrum of the Phillies' franchise, is under reasonable contract for five years. The Phillies have put themselves in position to be a winning team in the present.
Looking at the rest of the roster, the Phillies under Gillick seem to have set up the roster to dispose of contracts immediately prior to, or with, the end of the 2011 season. Ibanez' deal ends after 2011. So does Ryan Madson's. Moyer, Romero and Werth's contracts are up after 2010. Myers' contract ends after next season, as does Feliz', and Victorino, Blanton and Ruiz all signed 1-year deals to avoid arbitration. So, the Phillies have given themselves a large degree of flexibility here. Prior to the end of the 2011 season, the Phillies will face a decision about what to do in the future, with four large, expiring contracts approaching. The Phillies can choose to resign players, to let them go, to trade them, to do what seems reasonable. This is tough to forecast, as he picture will of course look much clearer then than it does now, but, barring injury or an unforseen tumble from greatness, the team is set to have three more years with a good, solid core, and the Phillies have not committed any contract errors or wild free agency plunges to get there. If the willingness to put out a $130 million team next year is any indication, they ought to have enough money to put out a quality team along with the core for the time being, the economy permitting. I think that the front office has done about as well as a fan base can ask for here.
This is really something. I've been a Phillies fan since I went to a game on my Dad's birthday when I was four, or so. Maybe five. They played the Padres. I kind of believed, I know I hoped, that one day I could open the paper, look at the sports page, know the Phillies were champions, know that the front office would do what it took, within reason, to keep it that way, and know that had I stuck it out, that I had been rewarded for my faith. Now, with pitchers and catcher reporting in less than a week, that day is here.
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